---
title: 'Director of Government Relations at Poseidon Aerospace'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-government-relations-poseidon-aerospace-washington-yvsvf2k24kpw'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-07'
---

# Director of Government Relations at Poseidon Aerospace

- **Company:** Poseidon Aerospace
- **Location:** Washington, DC
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-05
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-07
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/poseidonaero/b7391b5a-fb6b-4a29-a580-3241647dd837

## Job description

## ABOUT POSEIDON AEROSPACE:

Poseidon Aerospace is reimagining how the world moves goods. We build and operate full-size autonomous cargo aircraft - capable of carrying two tons of payload over a thousand nautical miles. From remote communities to contested logistics operations, our platforms unlock a new cost curve for air freight, making it faster, cheaper, and accessible anywhere it's needed. Headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area with locations in Washington DC, Oregon, and Maine; we're building something consequential.

About the role:

We are looking for a Director of Government Relations to own Poseidon's engagement with the federal government across both the legislative and executive branches. You will run our authorizations and appropriations strategy and our executive and interagency strategy, with the objective of converting mission needs into funded programs and enduring support for Poseidon's platforms.

You will personally carry the work on the Hill and across the agencies, and as the function grows, you will build and lead the team behind it. You should be a self-starter who finds the path to an outcome and walks it.

What you'll do:

Congressional and legislative strategy

- Define and lead Poseidon's congressional strategy across the NDAA, defense, and homeland security appropriations, and oversight.
- Identify, draft, and advocate for authorization and report language that supports Poseidon's platforms and the industrial base behind them.
- Drive annual appropriations and authorization campaigns to support program starts, plus-ups, and multi-year funding profiles that have direct and material impact on revenue.
- Build and maintain deep, trust-based relationships with Members and staff on HASC, SASC, HAC-D, SAC-D, and related subcommittees.
- Monitor, analyze, and engage the annual congressional policymaking process, with particular focus on appropriations and defense and homeland security policy.

Executive branch and interagency strategy

- Engage the executive branch and interagency at senior levels to shape requirements, resourcing, and policy in Poseidon's favor.
- Draft Poseidon's congressional and executive-branch requests, and determine when, where, and how Poseidon can drive favorable outcomes.
- Serve as the primary relationship owner across relevant executive agencies and offices, translating their priorities into Poseidon's program strategy and vice versa.
- Build constructive working relationships with regulators to streamline the approvals Poseidon needs to operate and test.

Function-building and cross-functional leadership

- Design, implement, and drive GR strategy across multiple business lines and spanning multiple fiscal years, aligned to corporate strategy.
- Work with growth and business-line leadership to identify business and policy opportunities and advise on the legislative and resourcing strategies to capture them.
- Lead coordination across communications, legal, corporate development, and engineering to execute in support of company-wide priorities.
- Stand up the systems, cadence, and eventually the team that scale the GR function as Poseidon grows.

Outreach, representation, and political engagement

- Draft and manage Poseidon's engagement materials: white papers, one-pagers, decks, talking points, testimony, and hearing prep.
- Plan and execute Member and staff visits, demonstrations, and facility tours.
- Manage external lobbyists and consultants, and represent Poseidon in industry coalitions, trade associations, and think tanks.
- Support Poseidon's Political Action Committee priorities and strategy.

Required qualifications:

- 7+ years of experience in the national security, government relations, or federal legislative or executive arena, with significant Capitol Hill engagement.
- Extensive defense and national security experience on Capitol Hill, in the executive branch, or in a comparable defense-industry government-relations position.
- Demonstrated success planning and implementing strategies that influence change in the legislative, policy, and budget process, with a track record of outcomes through the NDAA and defense or homeland security appropriations.
- Deep, working knowledge of PPBE, the U.S. federal appropriations and authorization processes, and how requirements map to funding lines, schedules, and risk, including the roles of executive agencies, the White House, the Senate, and the House.
- One of the following profiles: professional staff on HASC, SASC, HAC-D, or SAC-D (or service for a senior appropriator), or current in-house government-relations experience at a defense technology company.
- Ability to build coalitions and maintain relationships with key congressional and executive-branch officials and with industry and trade associations.
- Willingness to register as an individual lobbyist under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995.
- Based in and working from our Washington, DC office in person. Travel approximately 25% or greater.
- U.S. Person. Bachelor's degree required; advanced degrees welcome but not required.

Preferred qualifications:

- Active or eligible TS/SCI.
- Established bipartisan relationships across the Armed Services and Appropriations committees and with senior executive-branch and combatant-command stakeholders.
- Experience building a government-relations function from scratch rather than inheriting a mature process.
- Fluency in defense acquisition and the policy levers, including export control, that govern aerospace and autonomy.

## WHAT YOU GET FROM US

- Competitive salary and meaningful early-stage equity
- Relocation support if applicable
- Employee Health Benefit Plans
- 6% Retirement matching
- Flexible PTO
- Free lunches, snacks, and a stocked fridge at our offices
- AI tools and subscriptions

## About Poseidon Aerospace

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Poseidon Aerospace is reimagining logistics with autonomous aircraft built to move goods faster, cheaper, and anywhere they are needed, fundamentally changing the cost curve for air freight.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Startup)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founded**: Not publicly available
- **Founders**: David Zagaynov (CEO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Aerospace, Aviation, and Defense Logistics
- **Target customers**: Government/Defense (military logistics), Commercial logistics providers, and Enterprise supply chains
- **Mission**: To make air logistics as affordable and flexible as possible by driving the cost per ton-mile down to levels never before achieved in aviation, building the unmanned backbone of tomorrow's logistics.

## Products & Services
- **Seagull (Unmanned Cargo Aircraft)**: An autonomous, unmanned cargo drone designed to lift two tons. The aircraft is a seaplane, requiring no airports or runways—only water—to operate. This unlocks millions of miles of navigable waterways for logistics. The platform is built from the ground up as a clean-sheet design, leveraging composites and advanced manufacturing.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available
- **Total Funding**: $12.4 million USD
- **Funding Rounds**:
    - Pre-Seed: Led by Starship Ventures (1 investor)
    - Seed (2025-01-01): $1.4M from 2 investors
    - Seed (2025-11-01): $11.0M from 7 investors, led by Tamarack Global
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Tamarack Global (Lead), Starship Ventures, Sean Hoge (Lead Investor)
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew +366.7% year-over-year to 20 employees; actively hiring for high-impact roles; secured a partnership with Northeastern’s Roux Institute and their National Security Innovation Hub to expand presence in Maine; FY2026 NDAA includes a provision for a pilot program for contracted amphibious aircraft, validating the market.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Seaplane Design**: The aircraft requires no airports or runways, only water, unlocking millions of miles of navigable waterways and making logistics possible in remote, contested, or infrastructure-poor regions.
- **Cost Curve Disruption**: By driving down the cost per flight-ton-mile, Poseidon aims to make air cargo as affordable as ground or maritime transport, a fundamental shift in logistics economics.
- **Defense & Government Focus**: The company is strategically aligned with U.S. national security priorities, specifically "contested logistics" as highlighted by the Department of Defense, giving it a clear and funded customer base.
- **Speed & Agility**: As a small, focused team (20 employees), the company claims to move with immense speed, building clean-sheet autonomous planes from scratch using advanced composites and manufacturing techniques.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scaling the Team**: Actively hiring across engineering, operations, and government relations to support rapid growth (headcount up +366.7% YoY).
- **Government & Defense Contracts**: Winning contracts is a core focus, with a dedicated Proposal Lead role and a Director of Government Relations position. The company is positioning itself to be a key player in the U.S. military's "contested logistics" strategy.
- **Expanding Manufacturing & Presence**: Partnering with Northeastern’s Roux Institute in Maine to build a presence in a region with a deep aerospace heritage and access to a national security innovation hub.
- **Product Development**: Building and iterating on the "Seagull" unmanned cargo aircraft, with a focus on composites and clean-sheet design.

## Why Work Here
- **High-Impact, Early-Stage Environment**: The company has grown from 4 to 20 people in a short period, offering the chance to build foundational systems and processes from the ground up.
- **Cutting-Edge Technology**: Work on clean-sheet autonomous aircraft, advanced composites, and manufacturing engineering in a fast-paced, iterative environment.
- **Mission-Driven**: The work directly impacts national security and global logistics, with a clear, compelling mission to make air cargo as affordable as ground transport.
- **Culture & Perks**: On-site work in San Francisco, CA. The company emphasizes a "punch above its weight" culture with a focus on engineering excellence and speed. Active hiring for high-impact roles across engineering, operations, and government relations.
- **Recent Growth**: The team has grown from 4 to 20 people in a short period, offering significant ownership and career growth opportunities for early employees.

## Sources
1. [poseidonaero.com](https://www.poseidonaero.com/)
2. [LinkedIn - Poseidon Aerospace](https://www.linkedin.com/company/poseidon-aerospace)
3. [Built In - Poseidon Aerospace](https://builtin.com/company/poseidon-aerospace)
4. [Ashby - Poseidon Aerospace Jobs](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/poseidonaero)

## Other roles at Poseidon Aerospace

- [Senior Recruiter](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-recruiter-poseidon-aerospace-alameda-8n3y3p2ks94f) — Alameda
- [Propulsion Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/propulsion-engineer-poseidon-aerospace-alameda-j764pv1hrkqc) — Alameda
- [Proposal Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/proposal-lead-poseidon-aerospace-washington-fy2rdhdr2w3v) — Washington, DC
- [Pilot](https://feeny.ai/job/pilot-poseidon-aerospace-alameda-7r9ygx47zmpp) — Alameda
- [Operations Associate](https://feeny.ai/job/operations-associate-poseidon-aerospace-alameda-b79xt48vnsjy) — Alameda
- [Mechanical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-poseidon-aerospace-alameda-pr6p7816nv70) — Alameda
- [Manufacturing Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/manufacturing-engineer-poseidon-aerospace-alameda-5gqg860wyvxs) — Alameda
- [Maine Composites Bridge](https://feeny.ai/job/maine-composites-bridge-poseidon-aerospace-alameda-dpk4eetefz67) — Alameda
- [Lead Mechanical Engineer, Airframe](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-mechanical-engineer-airframe-poseidon-aerospace-alameda-cmzp9ptrpq8q) — Alameda
- [Head of Finance](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-finance-poseidon-aerospace-alameda-t4js5ys7mnfg) — Alameda